Author's Notes:

Guess what I've been playing.

What do you do when the only friends you have in the world turn against you? Not just away from you. Not just forget about you. But when they start seeing you as an enemy? What do you do when there’s nothing left?

I can't get my mind off of that line of thinking. I haven't been able to for weeks ever since the start of the whole Anon-A-Miss mess that was destroying what little bits of my life I’d managed to scratch back together after the Fall Formal. The more I think about it the more the whole mess makes a twisted kind of sense. After all, I hurt so many people during my tenure as Queen Bee Bitch of Canterlot High, right? So there was bound to be someone who held a grudge. Even worse, it's probably someone I hurt pretty bad. Well, at least bad enough for them to want to ruin my life.

Fair enough, I guess. I wouldn't be surprised if I ruined theirs at some point.

What’s left for Sunset Shimmer? The once and future fuck-up? I stare up at the thick, grey-white clouds. The snow is coming down harder than it was this morning. I originally came up to the roof of the school to get some air since the atmosphere in the school is pretty oppressive. Yeah, I'm skipping a class but, hey, no one's going to come out here to bother me. Not in this weather anyway. Why harass me in the biting cold when they can just as easily shoot spitballs at the back of my head in the warmth of the hallways?

So here I am, feet dangling over the edge of the roof as flurries of snowflakes dance around the air, and it’s bitterly cold. I’m sure the rest of the school body couldn’t care less but I’m also fairly certain none of them are squatting in the abandoned railway station office on the edge of town. It’s awesome in the summer, nice and cool, but the winters are bad. Sometimes really bad. Last year I managed things by sneaking into the school library and sleeping there. All it took was futzing with the library security camera’s swivel a little to make a blind spot and voila, instant winter getaway. That's not happening this year though; I'm too high profile.

Plus, with the generator in my basement bricked my current digs are pretty much unlivable. The only upside that shithole even has to being out in the open anymore is the roof that's over my head and, if I'm being honest, the leaks are starting to make that look questionable. I briefly consider trying to find a new place to hole up in but, honestly, there's no way that would fly at the moment. It's the same problem there as it is with the library, I just can't go anywhere without someone keeping an eye on me and I don’t have my blackmail and extortion to fall back on anymore. Not that I regret that part, changing was... good. It needed to happen, I know that. My bad decisions just caught up with me is all.

That did mean, of course, that all that was waiting for me back at 'home' was a cold cement floor, brick walls, a sleeping bag on a military cot, and an empty belly. I really shouldn’t have skipped lunch but… I just couldn’t bear to be in the cafeteria with everyone. With them. With my… former friends.

I clench my eyes shut as the wet heat of tears start pushing their way out. It feels like I’m choking and drowning all at once as the tears track down my cheeks and they freeze before they even reach my chin.

“I… I just wanted friends…” I choke out, quietly. “I just wanted to be good…” No one hears me but I don’t need anyone to. I’m the only one who needs to hear it.

I think about the book Princess Twilight left me. I’d written to her about the mess I was in but her only response hadn’t been very useful. I mean, I get it, she’s a princess. She has more on her plate than resolving some stupid rumor-mongering but… I’m her friend too right? Would it be that much trouble to just… help?

“Sunset?”

I nearly jump out of my skin, wheeling my arms a little as my butt slides around for a second before I find my balance again. I turn around to see Vice Principal Luna looking at me with an even gaze.

“What are you doing out here?” Luna closes some of the distance, her arms crossed against the cold. “It’s freezing, and you have class.”

I swallow down the rest of my tears and do my best to wipe away the little trails of rime they’d left on my face. The look on Luna’s face when I turn to face her tells me I didn’t do a very good job.

“Y-yeah, I know, sorry,” I answer, trying to ignore the hitch in my voice. “It’s pretty bad down there, honestly. I figured I’d get some fresh air and some… peace and quiet.”

Luna lets out a small sigh and nods. “I see, well, whatever you may think, I do understand your situation. More than you might expect. So I’m going to offer some advice; stop, apologise, and get it over with.”

Her words send an iron spike through my heart. Even the teachers think I’m guilty. Everyone thinks I’m guilty. But Luna continues without pausing.

“My sister and I can’t really do anything given that the whole matter is happening over the internet, and you obviously don’t like or want this result any more than anyone else does.” Luna steps forward and puts a hand on my shoulder; I don’t even have the strength to flinch away. “I don’t know why you’ve returned to your old tactics but it’s clear you regret it. If everyone continues to lash back and forth at one another like this I fear there will only be broken hearts in the end. Someone has to break the cycle and I suggest that it be you.”

I try to say something. I swear I do but my mouth doesn’t want to open. The words won’t come. I want to defend myself. To tell her it’s not me. It was never, never, me.

But why should she believe me?

The Vice Principal is right. This looks like exactly something the old me would have done. Spread lies and rumors. Try and tear everyone apart. Except from everyone else's point of view it just… didn’t work this time. Goddesses… it really must look like that from the outside. Like big bad bitch Sunset Shimmer finally put one toe too far over the line and messed up. Even the girls that called themselves my friends must have, even just subconsciously, been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Everyone was. Now this whole mess is just lining up with what everyone has been secretly expecting all along.

So that’s it.

I let out a slow, shaky breath, and nod. I look up at Luna, who’s giving me a small smile. I try to match it but I can feel how glass-fragile the expression is.

“Good, I’m glad you’ve made the right decision,” Luna says, patting my head. A few minutes ago the patronizing act would’ve made me mad. Now I don’t feel a thing. “Your friends should still be in class, I recommend getting it over with quickly, okay? We’ll see how things go after that.”

I nod, she’s definitely right. “Yeah, I’ll get it over with right away.”

“Good girl,” Luna says, a fuller smile on her face. “Now, I’m going back inside, you should too. It’s awfully cold out here.”

You have no idea.

“I’ll be off the roof in a minute,” I promise, “I just need to make sure I have everything.”

Seemingly satisfied, Luna walks back towards the door. I turn back to the roof edge where I left my backpack and pull out the Journal, opening it to the next empty page as I hear the door open and then close. I take out my pen and think for a moment before settling on the appropriate way to phrase my letter.

I close the book and as it snaps shut I feel lighter than I have in weeks. I clutch the journal to my chest and feel the tears track down my cheeks again. I’m taking Luna’s advice and just getting it over with quickly. I step up onto the edge and look down to see the main entrance of the school.

"Oof, that’s not gonna be pretty," I mutter, oh well, not like it'll matter to me.

At least it’s so cold, so shouldn’t be too messy. Kind of ironic, too actually since I can still see the discoloration of the cement, the new melded with the old, from where I’d been hit by the Elements of Harmony during the Fall Formal. I’m going to end it all today right where it all should’ve ended back then.

I turn on my heels. Better to land on my back, I think. Besides, I've always liked the grayscale winter skies.

I tighten my grip on my Journal as I tip and fall, and as I do I see the roof access door open back up. Oops, Luna must’ve had something else to say. I feel a slight twinge of regret as I drop over the edge. She saw me and I definitely saw the look on her face.

The look of horror.

I hear her scream my name.

Sorry VP. You tried your best. I appreciate it. I really, really do. But my past is not today. My future is not tomorrow. And my present is over.

I let the wind take me away.

“SUNSET NO!”

Rarity, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie hear the shriek from above where they were sitting in Algebra class. Rarity is sitting next to the window, looking out over the beautiful snowy landscape. She’s getting an idea for a new winter coat, something that flows and rolls like the hills on the edge of town with unbroken smoothness. Maybe some emerald green threading to evoke the idea of the evergreens, still rife with color even in the heart of winter.

All of them hear the shriek, but Rarity is the only one looking out the window when the shape passes by.

Just a flash of red and gold hair, dark leather, and boots followed by a dull, wet, crack.

The entire class is muttering, shocked and surprised at the sound of the shriek, but most of them are looking out towards the hall or up at the ceiling in confusion.

None of them understand when Rarity starts screaming.

“SUNSET NO!”

Luna screams as the infinitely tired and disheveled looking Sunset disappears over the edge, and suddenly Luna is running faster than she’s ever run before. She needed to get to the lip of the roof. Maybe Sunset is still there. Maybe she was hanging on for dear life. Maybe.

Maybe.

She doesn’t even get to the edge before she hears the sound of something hard hitting the cement with a meaty crack. The sound takes the life out of her and Luna drops to her knees at the edge of the roof, feeling a sudden weight in her clenching her gut and gripping her heart. Looking out over the city of Canterlot there’s a brief, brief moment where it's not quite real yet. Where Luna can just think about how beautiful the city is.

And about how she could look down. She definitely could.

She really… really doesn’t want to.

Then she hears a girl start screaming. Tears start pouring down Luna’s face. She failed. Failed as bad as any teacher, as any person, could fail. Slowly, at a glacial pace, Luna turns her face down to see the final result of her negligence. To see whatever ruin was left on the front steps of her and her sister's school.

To see the reality of her total incompetence.

She looks down at the entrance to the high school and sees… a smear. A faint red smear on the cement and nothing else. Blinking in confusion, she leans over, disgusted but terrified that Sunset had somehow…slid or something. There is nothing. No body.

No Sunset Shimmer.

But there was blood. Casting all thought of her own safety to the winds, Luna sprints across the snowy rooftop to the fire access stair hanging from the edge of building. The cold, aged, and poorly-cared-for steel bites hard into her hand as she careens down the loose slaloming stairs to the frosted grass below. She’d cut herself on the metal but she couldn’t care less. Luna sprints for the corner and turns hard, her converse digging through the manicured lawn of the school. There! The entrance to the school!

Luna reaches it just as Rarity comes tearing out of the school screaming.

“Sunset! SUNSET!” Rarity was screaming at the top of her lungs, her face panicked and terror-ridden. Tears are streaking the mascara across her face as she turns this way and that. “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SUNSET WHERE ARE-!”

Rarity’s voice dies in her throat at the sight of the blood staining the cement. Her friends come out quickly after, looking worried and confused. Luna approaches from the side but Rarity catches sight of her before Luna can say a word. For once lacking a single thought toward propriety Rarity grabs Vice Principal Luna by the lapels of her coat and shakes her as hard as her thin, teenage arms can manage.

“WHERE IS SUNSET!?” Rarity shrieked. The other five are just staring in dumbfounded confusion at the girl yelling at their teacher. Then they look at the smear. That’s when Luna sees the panic really starts to set in. “WHERE IS MY FRIEND?!”

The Vice Principal just shakes her head. “I don’t know. I saw her… fall. I saw her and I… I thought I heard her… hit. But when I looked down it was just that.” Luna points at the smear. The panic on the faces of the other five becomes truly intense at the Vice Principals words.

Whipping around, Rarity makes a slashing motion with her hand. “What are you all waiting for let’s FIND HER!”

They search long into the evening until the early winter night comes. The whole of the school grounds was scoured. The only trace of Sunset is the blood on the cement and nothing else.

Sunset Shimmer was gone.